Word: conductor
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Bartók: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (Maurizio Pollini, Chicago Symphony, Claudio Abbado conductor, Deutsche Grammophon). Pollini has had a banner year on disc, issuing fine performances of a staple of the repertory (Beethoven's Third Concerto) as well as an avant-garde experiment (Luigi Nono's... sofferte onde serene ...). This set-modernist but accessible- falls happily in-between. Bartók's angular octaves and Hungarian folk rhythms tempt many pianists to turn into percussionists. Pollini achieves a biting authority without ever banging...
Johann Christian Bach: Six Symphonies, Op. 3 (Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Neville Marriner conductor, Philips). Marriner has made more than 200 recordings with this London chamber orchestra, most of them in the pre-1800 repertory and quite a few of them models of punctilious, shapely interpretation. Never more so than here. These modest works by Bach's youngest son are lively, economical and flowering with the charm of a style that is well along the path leading from his august father to Mozart...
Berlioz: Béatrice et Bénédict (Mezzo Janet Baker, Tenor Robert Tear, Soprano Christiane Eda-Pierre, John Alldis Choir, London Symphony Orchestra, Colin Davis conductor, Philips; 2 LPs). In his final work, the ailing Berlioz took Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and made it into his own Tempest, a blend of wit, ardor and gentle sadness bathed in the amber light of a late Parisian afternoon. The opera may be better heard than seen, since its extended passages of French dialogue make it problematical to stage; certainly it is a pleasure in this buoyant...
Bach: Magnificat. Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms (Deutsche Oper Chorus, Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan conductor, Deutsche Grammophon). This is an apt pairing: a monument of the Baroque and a modern masterpiece whose liturgical austerity looks back to precedents in the Baroque and earlier. Karajan's Bach, velvety and well turned, may not be for purists, but the Stravinsky seems just right, with its tart syncopations dancing beneath a lustrous choral hymn of praise...
Mozart: Don Giovanni (Baritone Bernd Weikl and Bass-Baritone Gabriel Bacquier, Sopranos Margaret Price and Sylvia Sass, London Opera Chorus, London Philharmonic, Sir Georg Solti conductor, London; 4 LPs). "Summer lightning made audible" was Shaw's metaphor for this miraculous score, and it serves well to describe Solti's performance-swift, dramatic, deft. The tragic hints in the work are systematically underplayed; the elegant comic surface remains unbroken. Colin Davis' 1974 recording, with its darker moods and more muscular texture, still provides a compelling alternative reading. But the splendid cast and Solti's conducting make this...